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“Pft.” She shrugged and rolled her eyes. “It means nothing. But Dante isn’t one to play games like Raymond. You should give him a chance.”
“Why? He doesn’t know me anymore and I sure as hell don’t know him. I owe him nothing. The jerk couldn’t even text me.”
“But he asked about you.”
“Only when he called you.” God, I hated how he’d kept in touch with Birdie. I knew they texted. It made me jealous and insecure.
A few times my emotions had gone haywire, and it had nearly ended my friendship with Birdie. Not that our mothers would’ve allowed it to happen. But why had he treated me as if I meant nothing to him? We’d all grown up together. We had that hot-as-hell kiss.
“I think he was afraid.”
Afraid? Why would he be afraid? “You’re just making excuses for him.”
“Em, I’m not.” She rubbed my shoulder again. “Can you imagine having a long-distance relationship with him? It would suck not seeing or hearing from him. Some of his missions were months long. I worried so much and prayed all the time for him to be okay.”
So had I. Of course, I’d known everything about him because of Birdie. I had heard it all. Many nights I’d cried myself to sleep because I feared never seeing him again.
“And now he’s home.” Mom patted my thigh.
“And I could be pregnant.” A single tear escaped my eye. “He won’t want me when he finds out.”
“You won’t know for a couple of weeks if the procedure was a success,” Birdie said.
“And then you need to make it into the second trimester, like Doctor W said.” Mom patted my leg again to console me.
“Great, so I’ll be in limbo until May.” I peered into my side-view mirror and spotted the headlights of his Jeep. He’d lost the baby fat on his face. His jawline was sharper, and he had a neatly trimmed beard and a military flattop. He was sexy with a penetrating gaze. Everything about him screamed alpha, though he’d kept himself in check at the restaurant. But I smelled the testosterone seeping out of his pores and if I were a betting woman, I’d bet he had a boner for me.
Me.
He had a boner for ME.
But why? God, I felt even more confused than before.
“Not if you told him the truth, sweetie.”
“Mom, we agreed we wouldn’t tell anyone except Dad. And we would not tell him until I got a positive pregnancy test.”
“Crap. You’re right. We did all pinky swear not to tell anyone.”
“Well, my lips are sealed.” Birdie clicked her tongue.
“What about you, Mom?” I knew I could count on Birdie to keep her promise. My mom, on the other hand, was the outlier. With my dad, she could flip on a dime because she never lied to him. But she wouldn’t be lying, per se. She’d be keeping my secret, and I’d be the one hiding what I’d done today. Suddenly, I felt like the worst daughter ever.
“I’ll keep your secret unless he asks me directly, then all bets are off.”
“I’ll take it. So we’re all in agreement, again. Nobody says anything to anyone until I know if I’m pregnant. And then, I decide who I tell and when.”
“Agreed,” Mom and Birdie said at once.
“Good. Enough about me. What the heck was going on between you and Raymond, Bird? I swear I’ve never seen his jaw so tight. Why don’t you just sneak into his bedroom and force him to admit he likes you?”
“La, la, la, la, la. I’m not hearing this,” my mom sang. “Please stop talking or else I’ll be forced to tell Maddy what y’all talked about. You know she’ll question me when we’re alone.”
“But she knows Birdie is in love with Raymond.”
“No. She thinks I have a crush on him, but she doesn’t know I’m in love with him.”
I turned around to look her in the face. “You told me you confessed the day after—”
